


The Silence In Between

by orphan_account



Category: Supernatural
Genre: 30 Day Cheesy Tropes Challenge, Alternate Universe - High School, Anonymous Love Letters, Fluff, Jock Castiel, M/M, Nerd Dean, Oblivious Castiel, he wears glasses and fandom t shirts anyway, in the sense that it is mentioned he is plays football and is relatively popular, mentions of past megstiel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-31
Updated: 2014-08-31
Packaged: 2018-02-15 12:57:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2229900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first one only said <i>I really like your smile,<i></i></i> and Cas brushed it off as someone's idea as a prank. After all, who would send his <i>love letters<i></i></i> of all things?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Silence In Between

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Florence and the Machine's 'No light, No light', which has no significance to the story except that I've been listening to it obsessively all day. And it has the line 'bright blue eyes' in it, which I would have chosen except that's too cheesy, even for the Cheesy Tropes Challenge
> 
> Prompt: Anonymous Love Letters

At first Cas brushed it off as some kind of sick prank. There had been a lot of that going around, lately; people seemed to revel in the chaos it caused. Not just the letters, although Cas thought that maybe Lydia Jackson’d had the same thing happen to her; there had been a spate of pranks of every kind going on. Privately, Cas thought that maybe people were trying to make up for the absence of Gabriel ever since he had gone off to college.

 

He still opened the note to see what was on it, though.

 

_I really like your smile_.

 

The writing was meticulous, as if it had been done very slowly. It was in block letters- probably to disguise handwriting- on white paper, nothing to identify who’d left it there. There were a few grubby fingerprints in the corner he noticed, although Cas _did_ draw the line at actually dusting for fingerprints, and anyway, if it was a prank it didn’t really matter.

 

It bothered him still. Who would go to that much trouble just to fuck with _him_ , of all people? Was it for, like, street cred (that was what people called it, wasn’t it?), because he was Gabriel Milton’s little brother? He wasn’t what you would call an easy target- he was quiet and got decent grades, yes, and he was a little socially inept, but he was generally well liked, he was on the football team, and he did things like help puppies and kittens in need.

 

Probably Gabriel’s fault, then. God knows there was no other reason for anyone to do something so insipid.

 

Cas still shoved the piece of paper in his bag, though. Just in case.

 

~o~

 

The next day started normally: shower, breakfast, long bout of his mother trying to get his hair flat on his head, Anna giving him a packed lunch before he went out the door because god knew what was in what they served at the cafeteria. The next few hours of it went pretty normally, too. In fact, everything was achingly normal until fourth period, when he got another one.

 

This one said _your sense of humor is FUBAR but I like it anyway._

What kind of statement was that, anyway? Cas wasn’t entirely sure he had a sense of humor, not one that others picked up on, anyway. Sometimes it seemed like the only person that found Castiel funny was Dean, and mostly that was Dean laughing at the things that Cas _hadn’t_ meant to be funny.

 

It was cruel to do this kind of thing to people, he mused. Impressionable people could read too much into it and then when they found out it was a joke, well- Cas shook off the thought. It wasn’t the sort of thing he really wanted to think about.

 

He considered ripping the damn thing up, but Dean was coming down the hallway towards him and he didn’t want to call attention to it. He figured if the person didn’t get a reaction they’d stop it- right? That made the most sense; it was what Castiel would do. Not that he would ever be that idiotic in the first place, of course.

 

He shoved it into his pocket right as Dean reached him, smiling at his friend. Out of all the people he knew, Cas thought that he liked Dean the best.

 

~o~

 

Dean Winchester had been Cas’s first friend when he first came to Lawrence, back when he’d been ten years old and everyone he knew (his family, mostly) called him Castiel. He’d been slightly younger but was smarter than Cas- at least, he knew how to use the bus, which was more than Cas did. He used it to get home from school and he was the one to show Cas how to do it.

 

He was slightly taller, but only slightly, and he wore thick framed glasses, hipster style, and a t-shirt depicting whatever the TV show of the week was. Cas had once thought that he was being pretentious, but no, he knew exactly what he was wearing on his chest, and could usually quote half of whatever the show was back to you if you asked.

 

He was sparkling green eyes that made Cas feel like he was lying in a field somewhere else, somewhere safe, and a laugh that Cas had, in darker times, compared to an angel’s. Cas thought that if he would ever be allowed, he could fall in love with Dean Winchester quite easily.

 

~o~

 

The next note came a week later, when Castiel felt like maybe they had given up before they even started. It was done on blue paper this time, and it said _you smile with your eyes, and when you do I feel like I’m falling_.

 

“What’s that?” asked Dean, a funny note in his voice.

 

“Nothing, really,” said Cas back. “They’ll probably stop eventually.”

 

“Why do you say that?” Dean shouldered his bag and when he looked at Cas his eyes had an inquisitive spark in them.

 

Cas shrugged. “They’re letters of admiration, Dean. Who would leave me _love letters_ of all things?”

 

“Well, obviously someone is. Why would they stop?”

 

“It’s probably some sort of prank or something. Someone who had a vendetta against Gabriel taking it out on me.” Cas wasn’t known for being great dating material, anyway. Letterman jacket or not, the only person he’d ever dated had been Meg, but she’d moved away after her uncle was arrested. Cas still missed her sometimes. Not as much as he used to, though.

 

“That’s stupid,” said Dean. “You’re stupid for thinking that. You’re really great, Cas. They’re probably just too afraid to tell you to your face, or something.”

 

Frowning, he said, “why would someone be afraid of _me_?” The thought was absurd, like Gabriel going on a diet or Anna actually ever agreeing with their father.

 

“I dunno, man. You’re the quiet enigma of the school. You’d be the quiet loner, but you’re on the football team so you’re like, automatically cool. Which I’ve been meaning to talk to you about. We’re not using this to our advantage, dude. You know all the shit we could get away with? In fact, I had an idea the other day…”

 

Cas smiled, letting Dean’s rambling tangents wash over him. It felt like coming home.

 

~o~

 

The last one wasn’t even in his locker, it was pressed between his math book pages. _You don’t like sappy shit_ , it said. _That’s good, cause neither do I. Which makes this all the more ironic ‘cause you cant get any sappier than this._

 

They weren’t wrong. It was a _very_ sappy thing to do, which made it all the weirder that the person who’d put it in his math book- who he’d _caught_ putting it in his math book- was _Dean Winchester_. Of all people.

 

“This was you?” asked Cas in disbelief. “All this time it was you?”

 

“All this time? It’s been a like a week, Christ, Cas. Not that long.”

 

“One and a half. One and a half and you _didn’t answer my question_ ”

 

“Yes! Yes, okay, it was me. I was working up to telling you to your face! Like, it was a little hard at first, but I was getting there. I was gonna tell you at the end of this week.”

 

“Tell me _what_ , Dean?” Cas thought that letting his hopes get up was unwise, but that wasn’t stopping them.

 

“I love you, okay! I really freaking love you, like how Winry loves Ed kinda love you. Like, I wrote you freaking _love letters_ , man! Who does that? Apparently, me.”

 

“You love me?” Cas tries the words out on his tongue, but they don’t quite fit. It doesn’t make sense that Dean could love him, but Dean has promised once that they’d never lie to each other and they’d never broken that promise. And anyway, Dean wasn’t that cruel to say something like that.

 

“Yeah, man, I love you. Like, a lot.”

 

“Does that mean I can kiss you?” That would prove it once and for all, Cas thought. And anyway, he _really_ wanted to kiss Dean right then.

 

“Please do.” He reached for Cas, but let Cas take the last step in, let Cas make the choice. And Cas reached for his too, pulled their faces together and locked their lips, kissed him like he’d never kissed anyone before.

 

And then, when they pulled apart, breathless, he said, “I’m not in love with you yet, but you’re the only person I _could_ fall in love with. If that makes any sense.”

 

Dean laughed, and replied. “It does, Cas. God help me, but it does.”

**Author's Note:**

> For anyone who doesn't get the Ed/Winry thing, it's from the anime Fullmetal Alchemist. Dean watches anime porn in canon, he can watch non-explicit anime in this verse.


End file.
